According to an earlier invention of mine for which a patent application accompanied by a complete specification No. 40325 of 1978 was filed in relation to an electronic device for scoring and in particular and particularly to a device designed to take uncertainty out of decisions in the game of squash, although applicable with some modification to tennis and other games, it was explained that one of the reasons for the device was that world tournaments are being conducted which have extremely high prize money and therefore need a system of scoring which will ensure that the players can depend on the decision which is called, and while, for instance, the rules of squash as approved by the International Squash Racquet Federation allows for the control of the game by one referee and one marker, it was proposed according to that invention that control be by one marker and by three referees, that is, by an odd number of persons, so that a decision recorded is the result of, for instance, two out of three decisions.
A corresponding application in the United States of America has been issued as U.S. Pat. No. 4,223,383 on Sept. 16th, 1980.
The object of the invention was to ensure during scoring that the decision of more than one person will be available and the final decision will be a majority decision and the object of the invention therefore is to provide a device which will allow this to be effectively achieved.
The invention described a device which has at least three decision units and one read-out unit, the decision units each being provided with the necessary press buttons by means of which a decision can be recorded, and the read-out unit being provided with indicators, such as lights, which show the result of all or any two of the decision units.
Thus in relation to the game of squash the three decision units could have seven buttons each, a central button recording a point, two buttons recording either a LET or NO LET, two buttons scoring either UP or NOT UP, and two buttons scoring either IN or OUT.
Each of these decision units could be held by persons at different vantage points and each of these units was coupled electrically to an electronic device which recorded only that decision which is given by two of the three persons, one of whom can be the referee or MASTER.
Thus the referee or MASTER for the game can as well as acting in a normal manner to call the decision be reinforced by two persons simultaneously also recording the decision as they see it, and as the device will then indicate the decision recorded by all or at least two of these persons, a highly effective check is given on the referee's decision thus greatly reducing errors which could occur when a single referee is used.
While the decision units were described as having a series of buttons it was pointed out that this would vary according to the game to which the invention is applied, but the basic principle was that at least three persons record their vote but the final decision was the result of any two of the three parties.
The read-out was conveniently arranged to show the recording of a point at the center of a display board with positive indicators to one side and negative indicators to the other side so that in the case of squash UP, IN, LET, were on one side of the STROKE indicator, while the NO LET, OUT,and NOT UP were on the other side.